Monday, March 15, 2010

Bethlehem Woods

Israel should give the PA 30 days to return to good faith negotiations with a clear condition that any rocket attacks from any location will end the talks. If the talks end then the Israelis should annex the Bethlehem district. They actually meant to back in 1967 and neglected to in one of History's great clerical errors. They should announce that no person whose family was not resident in that district prior to 1967 will be permitted to live there without a special hard to obtain permit. In the last 30 years Bethlehem has gone from over 80% Christian to 95% Moslem. This act of religious cleansing by the Palestinians has gone without response by the post-Christian West.

Given that they have no protectors in the face of Islamist triumphalism it makes sense for Arab Christians to adopt the status of dhimmis. Israel tried once to position itself as the protector of the Christians in the region when they invaded Lebanon about 30 years ago, and that effort was not successful. While Christianity may be resurgent and Islam in decline in Africa, as we explored on an earlier thread, in the Middle East the native Christian communities after 2,000 years may be running out of time.

It is true that many of the leaders of extremist movements in the Arab world come from the minority Christian community. That may be an example of a larger phenomenon. Revolutionary leaders may often come from members of marginalized groups seeking to prove themselves. Our resident Kremlin apologist is quick to point out that Stalin was a Georgian. Napoleon was a Corsican whose cradle language and love letters were Italian. Perhaps the larger pattern is that of minority entrepreneurs, think of like Korean grocers in New York, Chinese merchants in South East Asia, Indian merchants in East Africa, Jewish merchants anywhere, who can see a path to opportunities where those who are part of the rooted forest only see other trees.